Restaurateurs Want More L.A. Tasters

The best bargain in town right now could well be L.A. a la Carte, which ends today. Last weekend, the food and music festival, which was expected to draw over 60,000 people, fell considerably short of that mark. “Last Saturday was so light,” says Piero Selvaggio, who owns the Westside restaurants Valentino and Primi and also Posto in Sherman Oaks, “we only had about 4,000 people.”

L.A. a la Carte replaces the wildly popular, Seagram’s-sponsored Taste of L.A., which attracted long lines last year--and then left dozens of suppliers, entertainers and workers unpaid when it went out of business. The current event, partly sponsored by The Times for charity and held two consecutive weekends, had few lines last weekend as more than 35 top restaurants offered samples of their specialties for $1 to $5. Additionally, there were cooking demonstrations, ice sculptors, and author appearances. Admission to L.A. a la Carte, held on the grounds of the Santa Monica Civic Auditorium, is $6.

Selvaggio says that about 9,000 showed up on Sunday, and he’s hopeful about this weekend. “It’s just unfortunate that they opened on a weekend when the Olympics were going full blast,” he says.

“Last year we netted a 15% profit, which was phenomenal,” says Selvaggio. “We served 6,000 lobster cannelloni and 2,000 orders of tortellini. In a fancy restaurant, you don’t even dream of doing numbers like that.” Selvaggio, who is serving the lobster cannelloni again this year, as well as smoked swordfish with melon, arugula and tomato; arancini , and his “famous frico, “ figures this is a good way to get exposure for his restaurants. “If things pick up this weekend,” he says, “there will be at least 15,000 people a day, serious numbers.”

Hans Rockenwagner is also optimistic. “We are hoping this weekend will be better or else we will lose money,” says the Santa Monica restaurateur. He adds, “We are not doing this to make tons of money, we are doing this to promote our restaurants.” (He and wife Mary own Rockenwagner and Fama, both in Santa Monica.) Tastings from the Rockenwagner booth include house-smoked salmon on cucumber and fennel salad with basil oil and salmon caviar.

“The turnout wasn’t what I had expected,” says Ken Frank, chef/owner of West Hollywood’s La Toque, “but everybody is saying it will be better this weekend and I hope they’re right. If it survives this year, maybe it can flourish again.” While Frank doesn’t have a booth this year, he will be appearing today at 2 to do a cooking demonstration.

“I’ve got a positive attitude,” says ex-Checkers Hotel Kempinski chef Thomas Keller, “because if I don’t, my staff is going to be affected by it, and I want them to show up.” Keller, who is currently a chef without a restaurant, has a volunteer crew that includes such diverse members as Expressionist painter Lawrence Gipe and furniture designer Todd Rugee. Team Keller even has someone coming from New York with 10 pounds of special corn from the Iroquois reservation. They plan to pop it.

While the chefs may be a little worried about the numbers, it’s something to celebrate for the rest of us. Great food, low prices . . . and no lines.

GOING, GOING . . .: Four days after L’Ermitage closed its doors last year, owner Dora Fourcade put the venerable institution up for sale. The people who were interested in the restaurant included a group of Japanese investors, the owners of the New York restaurant Jezebel and Laurent Quenioux, the owner of the former Seventh Street Bistro. But nothing worked out.

Now Fourcade has filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy on the restaurant. Fourcade owns only the business and the lease; the land is owned by Patrick Bertranou, nephew of the late Jean Bertranou, the founder of L’Ermitage. “Fourcade cannot sell (the business) now,” says attorney Robert Uriarte. “It is in bankruptcy court, and the U.S. Trustees Office has appointed me to administer the assets of this estate. Any sale of the assets of that company would have to be through me.”

Uriarte says that the rumors about Bertranou rejecting every offer Fourcade accepted for the restaurant are not true. “I don’t know what the relationship between the landlord and the owner of the company was,” says Uriarte. “Each had a different version of what has occurred in the past. The bottom line is that I am now in the process of entertaining any bids to purchase the entity.”

YAK YAK YAK: Jivan Tabibian, co-owner of Remi in Santa Monica, wants to open another restaurant, but he’s waiting for the right deal. “Realtors are really screwing us up,” he says. “They think there is no recession. But there is, and everybody is in trouble.”

Tabibian says his restaurant would not be on the Westside. Other than that, he refuses to divulge much. He won’t even say if his Remi partner, Adam Tihany, is involved. “It’s something that has not been done before,” he says, “and it’s not Tibetan.”